Fang's Ride
by Sandradite
Summary: The first book of Maximum Ride, all in Fang's perspective. This will take me a looong time to finish, so hold in there! Yes, it's the same story, but some is cut out. And Fang is telling the story. I do not own Maximum Ride, I am not profiting from this.
1. Chapter 1

1.

It was early. Too early. And Max was having another nightmare. I could tell because she was groaning and turning in her bed.

I was still dressed from last night, and so I silently crept out of the house. Max would think I was asleep. She always did. But I liked to sit on the roof of our house, and watch birds fly, the clouds move, and think.

I like living in my own thoughts. Nobody else is more understanding of me than myself, not to be self absorbed. My life is crazy, I'm crazy. My whole "family" is a family of freaks. I like to think. I don't talk much; I don't have much to say. And Nudge covers the talking points. I snickered at that.


	2. Chapter 2

2.

Taking a running start, I jumped off the roof and let my wings catch me. It was so peaceful up here on the mountain. Private.

Good view.

I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. I hadn't lived many other places, other than School. I shuddered at that.

I dove down, folding my wings in, to get maximum speed, then pulled out of my dive rather quickly. _Not a great idea_, but I'd tried it a million times. Not that my wing muscles liked it.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

I heard someone walking around the house, rousing the rest of the flock.

Max was awake.

While passing the window, I saw Max's first victim was Gazzy. Then Iggy.

I landed softly and crept back through the window, and to Max, it looked like I just appeared in the kitchen.

"Will you _quit_ that?" She half-yelled at me.

"Quit what? Breathing?" I smiled slightly. Sneaking up on Max was fun; she always gave a good reaction.

"You know what." She rolled her eyes. Score: Fang-1 Max-0 for the day.

Iggy stood and sighed. "I'll make eggs."

Max nodded, obviously thinking to herself. Again. But like I could talk. "Fang? You set the table. I'll go get Nudge and Angel."

I nodded, but I wouldn't do anything before I had some juice.

Moments later, Nudge entered, and for once, not talking.

I loved mornings.


	4. Chapter 4

4.

"I want to go pick strawberries today," Angel announced. God, Iggy made good eggs. He was a good cook. "They're ripe now."

"Okay, Angel, I'll go with you," Gazzy agreed, then blew some wind. I never said he didn't live up to his name.

"Oh, jeez, Gazzy," Max said.

"Gas… mask" Iggy choked. Gazzy merely laughed at him.

"I'm _done._" I took my plate over to the sink. These kids were such… kids.

Gazzy apologized.

"Yeah, Angel, I think the _fresh _air would do us all good. I'll go too." Nudge probably would have continued talking had Max not interrupted her.

"We'll all go," Max said.

The open air in the afternoon wasn't as refreshing as it was in the morning, but being outside was much better than being in.

Angel had led us to a wild strawberry patch, and we were ready for a treat, one that didn't come in a can. I cracked a small smile.

Angel looked up at Max. "If you make cake, I can make strawberry shortcakes," she said, joyfully. Angel was almost always joyful.

"Yeah, that'll be the day, when Max makes a cake. I'll make it, Angel," I heard Iggy say, behind me. But Iggy was right next to me. I turned my head to look at Gazzy, who was smiling mischeviously.

"Oh, thank you!" Max said, maybe a little sarcastically. "Okay," she said, spinning to face us. "I'm not a fabulous cook. But I can still kick your butt and don't you forget it!"

Iggy put his hands up, shaking his head. Gazzy was stifling a laugh. Well, so was I. That kid was so funny, when he wasn't getting _me_ in trouble, that is.

"Was that _you_?" Max asked Gazzy. I had the sudden desire to say "No, it was the flying monkeys." But I didn't have the chance to.

Beside Max, Angel froze, and screamed. I could sense all other five pairs of eyes turning toward her.

Because in less than a second, men with long snouts, like wolves, clawed hands, and glowing reddish eyes dropped down from nowhere.

The Erasers had found us.


	5. Chapter 5

5.

We were trained to fight back. If these people were normal humans, we could've killed them before we knew they were fighting.

But they were Erasers.

Not like I had time to think about that.

One of the mousey-faced dog-men launched himself at me. I dodged, barely, and then fought him out, one on one. Tell me, why were guns invented? Fistfights and sword fights are all so unfinal, unless you're fighting a genetically altered mutant.

I can't tell you what I did, I don't even know if half the moves I did existed with names. Well, those who made up the names didn't have ultra thin bones, and a fourteen-foot wingspan.

I was doing fine, if fine meant we were basically tied in the wrecking-game, until two more Erasers ganged up on me, and then I went down. I had enough time to see Gazzy lying unconscious on the ground, and Max being taken down, nearly, by two Erasers, while she was surveying the rest of the group.

Angel was screaming. So was Nudge, in between the crying. _Okay, this went well_, I thought. Need I say it was sarcastic? I had no idea how Iggy was doing, Max was probably down by now, Gazzy was out, and Angel and Nudge were… I have no idea.

Me? I knew that I probably looked like crap. I felt like I had been slammed into the cliff wall by something really big. Face first.

Angel's screams were muffled, and Nudge was inaudible. That was not good.

But Max was still screaming. "Get _off _me you stupid freaking…" I couldn't hear the rest, some Eraser guy obviously thought I was unconscious, and kicked me. Hard. I lost all focus on Max and everyone else.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

Once it was obvious no more wolf-men were here, I got to my knees, groaning. I winced at the pain, and then tried not to think about it.

"Gazzy," I touched his shoulder. "Gazzy, it's over."

"Hmmm…" Gazzy groaned. _Good. He's going to be fine_. I moved to Iggy, who was kneeling and holding his head.

"God, that was horrible," he gasped. _Okay, two out of five are fine. Alive. Awake_.

I nodded. "Where's Angel? And Nudge? I couldn't hear them after a while."

"Angel was screaming. God, that girl has lungs. Nudge was thrown over somewhere. I don't know where."

"Thanks," Nudge didn't seem overly hurt. I turned to Gazzy, who was leaning over Max.

"Max?" He asked, staring at her intently. She groaned. _Thank God, she's okay too. But where's Angel?_ A terrible thought struck me.

"I'm okay," Max groaned. She always tried to be brave, always on the winning side. "Where's Angel?"

I locked eyes with her. "She's gone. They took her."

I must admit; Max took it much better than I thought she would. She didn't scream, or hit herself, or rant.

Shakily, she stood up, she held her head, and leaned against me for support.

"We've got to get her," she announced, trying to be brave and leader-like. Did she _ever_ quit that? "We've got to get her before they-" she cut off. I could imagine what was in her mind. They could kill her, dissect her, experiment on her. Terrible. "Check in guys- are you up for the chase?"

Personally, I didn't know how far we'd get, we all looked terrible.

"Yes," Nudge said, trying to stop her crying.

"I'm up," Iggy said, in a thick voice. His lip was split, and his head was badly bruised.

Gazzy nodded. Losing his sister, to the Erasers. It was different for us, we loved Angel, but she wasn't blood-related to us. She and Gazzy were real siblings.

I turned back to Max, who was trying to wipe away tears from her face. Being the leader right now had to be hard.

Iggy turned his head sideways, like a dog. He was listening. We all shut up, and we could hear the slight rumble of an engine.

"_There_," Iggy pointed. We took off running toward the noise.

Yes, running. Toward the people who wanted to kill us. We're odd like that.

A dusty black Hummer was pulling away, and I don't know how, but we all knew that Angel was in there.

"Let's get her!" Max yelled. She backed up then took a running start off of the cliff.

Then spread her wings and flew.

I, being the second oldest, by four months, took charge of being the last off. I waved Gazzy and Nudge off, then turned to Iggy. I yelled "Jump, ," for Iggy when he was about to take off. Helping Iggy kind of fell on my shoulders, when he needed it.

I surveyed the flock, and made sure everyone was okay, other than Angel, I backed up also, then ran and jumped into the air. Like before, I waited a little while before catching myself on my wings, so I could build up speed.

I'm not the mushy, loving type of person that, say, Max is. But I cared about my family, and I'd be lying if, while I soared down to where the Hummer was, I didn't think _We're coming, Angel_.


	7. Chapter 7

7.

Max was determined. She gained speed, and looked back at us. Nodding, she turned back.

Max banked sharply, following the car. Gazzy and Nudge followed her.

I caught up to Iggy, and let him listen to my wing beats. Sure, he was good at following us usually; meaning when we were on the ground, but listening is harder when you're flying really fast. Really high up. I pushed my wings down then up, then turned sharply, like Max did.

I dropped down, and pulled a large branch off a passing tree. Once I was centered over the Hummer's windshield, I threw it down.

The driver swerved the car, and I heard yelling. I let a smile play around my lips. _Please crash, please crash_, I thought. But of course they didn't. Instead, someone rolled down the window, and I saw a gun's barrel peek out.

_Oh, crap. Guns are not good_, I thought. _No, really, genius._

The Erasers in the car started shooting the trees, why the trees, I don't know. I don't even know if they were aiming.

I grabbed another branch, and aimed for the gun, but missed, and hit the windshield. _Oh, well._

More bullets shot from the gun. _Crap. They're shooting me_.

I swerved away, gaining altitude.

"Angel! We're here! We're coming for you!" _Shut up, Max. They don't know exactly where we are! Don't ruin it!_

"Up ahead," I called. There was a clearing, big enough for us to land. Or, not. There was a helicopter up there. They were going to take Angel away in it.

I caught Max's eyes, and nodded at her, hoping she understood. If they were going to move Angel into the chopper, we could get her back then. That was our chance.

I flapped harder, finally ahead of the Hummer, which squealed to a stop, spraying mud in all directions.

The door opened. I immediately tackled the Eraser, who had transformed already _Not fair_.

He slashed my arm with his claws, and I jumped back. "Ow!" I yelled.

The Eraser forgot I had two arms. Well, maybe I wasn't ambidextrous, but I wasn't exactly paralyzed in my left arm. I swung a punch at the Eraser as he ran for the chopper.

_Not worth your time. Help Max get Angel_.

I ran around back, not fast enough. I was blown to the ground by something. _Oh, Iggy. Trust him to have an explosive around_.

I was lying back on the ground, resting on, _Ow_, my cut arm. I watched for Angel. Max was battling an Eraser who looked eerily familiar. _I know him. But how?_ He threw a sack, _Angel!,_ to someone in the helicopter. Max screamed and grabbed onto the helicopter as it took off.

The Eraser spoke, I don't know what he said, but his voice was familiar. _Ari. Jeb's son. Why?_ He was pointing a gun at Max, who dropped off the helicopter.


	8. Chapter 8

8.

"They have my sister!" Dizzy, I sat up. Gazzy was yelling and punching the ground. I crawled over to him, and put my arm around him. Poor kid. Believe me, those Erasers were going to be in _big_ trouble.

Nudge was almost crying. "Max, what are we going to do? They have _Angel_."

Max lost it. She looked ready to punch something. Or throw herself off of something. She jumped into the air and flew somewhere.

Nudge started blubbering. "Max…" Gazzy stopped punching the ground. Iggy and I were silent.

No one was used to Max losing control. She might not have herself _completely_ collected, but she had never flown off like that. She had never looked so ready to… to explode.

"Guys, we should get back home," I said, quietly, not wanting to startle them. Iggy and Nudge nodded. Gazzy was beside himself. I decided not to trust his judgment.

After about a minute of collecting herself, Nudge flew up into the air. Iggy followed closely.

"Gazzy," I touched his shoulder. "It's going to be okay."

He nodded, though I doubted he had heard me. I stood up, and Gazzy put his hand up, his head still down. I grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet.

"Come on, Gasman. Let's get going." Gazzy rubbed his nose, then jogged a couple feet and took off.

I looked around. Max was nowhere to be seen. A vulture flew overhead, looking for food. _No bird food today, but do me favor? Go catch an Eraser and eat him for me,_ I thought bitterly at the bird. What a shock, it didn't do anything.

I backed up into the woods, looking around for Max. No sign.

I brushed my long hair out of my face, and gathered myself up. _Okay, let Max be alone_. I took a running start, and threw myself off the cliff. Falling. Falling felt good.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

Max entered the house, shutting the door with a bang. I jumped, and spun to look at her, half expecting an Eraser, dropping the gauze I was using to cover my hand, which was more scratched than my arm. My heart still hadn't calmed down when something hard whacked me in the side of the head.

Iggy was screaming, and had flung a mug or plate or something at me, accidentally.

"Watch it, idiot!" I yelled, before realizing what I'd said. I exhaled loudly, clenched my teeth, and rolled my eyes at Max. Immediately, I felt bad for putting my miniscule, unspoken blame on her.

Max was crying. Max never cried. She wasn't crying like Nudge, who was full out blubbering. But somehow, I thought that it might be better if she had been crying like Nudge. I took a deep breath, trying to collect myself.

"_You_ watch it!" Iggy yelled right back at me. I turned to look at him. Max was putting band-aids on Gazzy's cuts, acting the ever-caring leader. "What _happened_? I mean, you guys can _see_, can't you? Why couldn't you get Angel?"

I was about to snap back at him, I didn't care if he was blind; I was ready to kick his sorry butt off the cliffs, when Gazzy answered instead.

"They had a chopper! And guns! We're not _bulletproof_!"

"Guys! _Guys_!" Max yelled at us, her hands up as if she were stopping a physical fight. Which she would've had to do, if we'd had about 30 more seconds. "We're all upset. But _we're_ not the enemy! _They're_ the enemy!" She put another band-aid on Gazzy's face, and then started pacing. I fell down into a chair at the table. "Just- be quiet for a minute so I can think," she ordered. Even Nudge quieted her crying.

Iggy stumbled over to the couch, more because of his injuries, and sat down next to, almost on top of, Nudge. She leaned in against him, and he stroked her hair.

_ How could the Erasers break this up?! How could someone stand to be this evil?!_ were my only thoughts.

I had to do something. I got up, and opened a cabinet, and got out a can of ravioli.

"Take deep breaths," Gazzy told Max. Funny, him telling _her_ to calm down. It seemed almost full circle.

I was moving slowly, not wanting to think about anything other than my movements. Reach arm for fork. Pick up fork. Open can. Walk over to table. Don't think about what's going to happen to Angel.

Max was staring at me, into oblivion. She continued pacing. I watched her, silently eating my food.

"You know," Nudge began, "if they wanted to kill her, or kill all of us, they could have. They had guns. They wanted Angel alive for some reason." At this, I was sure I was the only person who saw Max shiver. I felt like shivering too. This wasn't a good thought. "And they didn't care if we were alive or not. I mean, they didn't go out of their way to make sure we were dead, is what I'm saying. So that makes me think we have time to go after Angel." Great thought, kiddo. But how, exactly? Where did they take her, what were they going to do wit her? _No, don't think of that_, I told myself. _That's not the positive, happy way you have to think._

All the sudden, I felt like something inside of me was falling. My stomach dropped. I couldn't keep track of the conversation.

"No," I whispered. No one heard me. _Great. They're not going to like this… _"We know where they took her," I said. I tried to sound casual. If I sounded freaked out, everyone would be, even before they knew. "The School."


	10. Chapter 10

10.

It made perfect sense. It's where they could operate on her, they could perform tests on her, and they had all the equipment.

This was not a cheery thought.

"Why?" Nudge was saying when I finally came back down to Earth. "After four years, I thought maybe they had forgotten…"

"They want us back," I didn't add in the reasons why. Well, the reasons _I_ thought they may want us back. To give you a hint, they also weren't exactly cheering.

"They'll never forget about us. Jeb wasn't supposed to take us out of there," Max said.

"Jeb knew they would do anything to get us back," Why? Because we were the few experiments that had actually worked. "If anyone ever discovered what they did to us, it would be the end of the School," I added. Yes, like we were going to go up to a reporter, say "Hey, look at me, I'm a mutant bird freak!" Which was exactly what Nudge was suggesting we do. Yeah, and…

"… that would fix them, all right, but we'd end up in a zoo." Iggy interrupted. Hello funny farm.

I had an idea. I stood up, and walked out of the room, and went into another room. Where my closet/trunk was. I shuffled through clothes and whatever else was in there, some of Iggy's tinkering that he'd had me hide, papers, and… Aha. There they were.

I picked up a packet of yellowed papers, that apparently had been part of a mouse's home. Note to self: Clean out trunk A.S.A.P.

And then I walked back into the main room and shoved the papers at Max. "Here."

She spread them out on the counter, and I started rifling through them. They were Jeb's old files, taken from the school. I looked through pages of useless information, and gobbledegook that I didn't understand, until I found the envelope I was looking for.

I caught Max's eyes, and she nodded. I popped the wax seal off, and opened the envelope.

"What's that?" Gazzy asked.

"Map," I answered, shortly. No one, not even Max, knew that I had this. I felt a tad smug. Score: Fang-2, Max-0.

"Map of what?" Nudge asked, almost hovering to look over my shoulder. Man, I hate when she does that. Not only is she the most talkative kid in the world, but she _has_ to look over your shoulder. Or try to, I was too tall.

"Map of a secret facility. In California. The School."

Way to be dramatic, Max. Way to be dramatic.


	11. Chapter 11

11.

"What…?" Gazzy could barely say the word.

Iggy froze, and his mouth dropped open, slightly.

"That's where they took Angel," Max explained. "And that's where we have to go to get her back."

Nudge started speaking, but I droned her out. You'd be surprised how easy it was at that moment. We had to go there, I agreed with Max, but what was our plan? Storm the castle? Sneak in and take Angel before anyone noticed? Take down everyone in there?

I shook my head, _No, none of those ideas sound too great, or successful._

"Uh, how far is it?" Nudge asked.

"Six hundred miles, more or less," I said. Which basically meant that I had no idea how far. "At least a seven hour flight, not including breaks." Well that sounded about right.

"Can we _discuss_ this?" Iggy asked, a little more than exasperated, and sounding a little frightened. We all were. "I mean, we're way outnumbered."

"No." Max's answer was clear and firm. Her eyes drank in the map, searching for, unless I was mistaken, a plan.

"Can we take a vote?" Iggy really didn't want to do this. _You might be in luck, Iggy. Max wants to get there as fast as possible…_ "They had _guns_. And a chopper." My _Thank you, Captain Obvious_ was stuck in my throat. As always. Why do I never speak my mind? I have no idea. Words just don't make it out.

"Iggy, this is _not_ a democracy. It's a Maxocracy. We have to go after Angel…" Max went on talking, I started packing up the papers and maps. No use in listening to Max, I knew what she was saying, and would rather _not_ be a part of it. But her words still reached my brain.

"…Nudge, Fang and I are going after Angel. You and Gazzy need to stay here," At this, I put my hand on Gazzy's shoulder as he tensed, ready to fight back. _You've done enough fighting for the day, kid. There's no swaying Max._ I wanted to tell him that it would be okay, I really did. But everything remained in my head. "I need you here, to hold down the fort. On the off chance that Angel escapes and returns home."

Her words were like magic; both Iggy and Gazzy clenched their fists.

Iggy's words were bitter, "You're so full of it. That's not why you want us here. Why don't you tell us the real reason?"

"Okay," she said, her voice showing no feeling. "It's true. I don't want you to come. The fact is, you're _blind_, and while you're a great flier around here where you know everything, I can't be worrying about you while we're in the middle of a fight with the Erasers."

_You go, Max._ I thought bitterly. _Tear the flock apart, will you?_ I tried to remain impassive, and I'm not sure if my face showed it, but I dearly wanted to punch Max for this. Iggy had a hard enough time as it was. And Gazzy, well he was only eight years old.

"What about me?" Gazzy tried to sound brave, and uncaring, but his voice barely came out. "I don't care if there are guns and choppers and Erasers. She's my _sister_."

I patted his shoulder, then I up and left. Tearing down Iggy was bad enough, but Gazzy? I couldn't stand this. I walked back into my room, and climbed out the window. It was the perfect time to sit on the roof, and not have to see Max breaking the hearts of our already broken flock.

I rested my head on my good hand. I spread myself out on the roof, lying down on my stomach, wings splayed out. I needed time to collect myself and my thoughts. So Max just wanted the three of us. Nudge, her and I. I sighed, there was no way I'd miss this trip, but three mutant freak kids against who-knows-how-many Erasers and evil scientists.

Idly I drew a wing in the dust. I added tiny feathers, and then smacked my hand down on it, stirring the dust and erasing the wing. How ironic.


	12. Chapter 12

12.

"Everyone clear on Plan B?" Max yelled to Nudge and I.

I nodded. We would meet at Lake Mead if we got separated. And if we got separated, it would probably mean we were being hunted down by Erasers. I didn't know what waiting for a dead person would do for us, but Max insisted.

I flapped my wings again, rising up on the strong air currents. I half-expected Gazzy and Iggy to follow us, against Max's will. I turned around, but nothing was there. Not a bird, not a plane, not Superman. I smirked at my joke.

My hair, not long enough to tie back, or get in my mouth like Max's, thank God, was still annoying flying around my face. I shook my head, trying to clear my eyes. _Note to self: bring a knife next trip, or at least some really sharp scissors to cut hair short_.

Max edged over closer to me, her wings fitting in behind mine.

"On the plus side," she told me, "flying is really, really cool. On the minus side, we're mutant freaks who will never lead a normal life." I turned to her, shrugging.

"Win some, lose some."

Max dipped down below my wings and took the lead, making a V-shaped formation. Maybe we'd fool some by looking like really, really weird birds. With shoes. And long legs. And maybe not.

We should've stocked up on food to bring with us during our flight. No one thought about that. Whoops. Maybe _I_ should've thought about that. If we wanted to reach Angel as fast as possible, we couldn't take too many rest stops. But we'd have to if we wanted to go fast. Not everything can be a win-win situation.

I often thought what it would be like to be in a plane, not in control of your flight. Weird, right? Just something with a motor and weighing a thousand-million pounds. How could you _stand_ to be in one of those things? True, they did move fast. What if we drafted a plane? If we found one, we could go so much faster with less work.

On the down side, we'd probably be seen, and sent to some zoo or something. But on the off chance that we weren't seen…


	13. Chapter 13

13.

**Author's Note: If you really want to know what happens, buy the book. But this story is Fang's View. I will change and cut out what I have to. I do not own Maximum Ride, yadda yadda yadda.**

Both Max and I were playing a game called 'chicken'. Usually, it's when two people run at each other and the first one to dodge is a 'chicken'.

That wasn't our game. Maybe a better name was wimp-off. Who could go without food or complaining the longest.

I was not going to be the 'chicken', though I wouldn't mind eating some…

_Don't think about food, Fang_, I told myself. _Just keep flying_.

The beat of my wings was making me hungry. Okay, maybe that didn't make sense. Maybe it _definitely_ did not make sense. But with every beat of my wings, I was losing energy.

Not as much as Nudge was; Nudge was fading. As much as I felt bad for Iggy and Gazzy, I kind of agreed that Max did have reasons for not asking them to come. There was no way Gazzy would've made it this far. And Iggy, well I wasn't sure about him.

I flew over closer to Nudge.

"How you doing?"

She looked at me, seemingly grateful for the company.

"A little tired. Do you think we're going to stop soon? What's Max's plan? Do you think we'll be able to rescue Angel? How long until we get there? Do you think-"

"Nudge…" I said quietly.

Her eyes were questioning.

"Don't worry about Max's plan. She…" I stopped myself. I couldn't tell Nudge that she didn't have one. No need to worry the kid; Max was her hero. "She'll figure it out."

Nudge nodded, reassured. "I was thinking…"

I gave her a glance and she went on. "I was just thinking that those files, you know, they had our names on them. And maybe they had our parents' names on them, so we knew we actually had parents." She took a breath, but didn't go on.

I nodded slowly, thinking. _Great, how can I break this to her?_ "Nudge… The files didn't have who our parents were on them," I spoke slowly.

"But are you sure?"  
I nodded.

"Okay…"

_Being a freak is hard on anyone. Even me, Nudge. But I do get what you're going at. We'll find our parents eventually, if they exist.  
_


	14. Chapter 14

14.

The 'chicken' game continued. I was hungry, but not unbearably so. Okay, I was starving. We had been flying for hours, and I knew that Max would have to stop for food eventually, even if it was just for Nudge.

I was right, I usually am.

"Fang!" Max yelled back at me over the wind, "We need to refuel. Ideas?"

I scanned the ground, thinking. The mountains were so peaceful looking. In the winter, they'd be all snowy and pristine. But in the summer…

I caught Max's eye, and she nodded. I knew she was thinking what I was thinking.

"Ski slopes," she called out. I nodded at her. "Summertime. Empty vacation houses."

"But will they have food?" Nudge asked.

Hmm, well we always left our house with food, but never for an entire summer.

"We'll see," Max said.

Max led us, flying a large circle, hunting for a good house to burglarize. Spotting something, she tucked her wings in and dove down. Nudge and I followed.

There's just something awesome about flying straight down, almost, in a perfect dive, diving into a deserted ghost town. I can't explain it.

Max sloped out of her dive slowly, and Nudge did the same. I dropped a bit longer, then spread my wings out, not suddenly, but gently, just to get that extra little speed and fun out of it. Ahead of me, Max and Nudge landed and shook out their wings. I did the same, folding my wings up close. My legs felt like jello, and I just wanted to fall over and sleep.

Max pulled out a pocketknife after a quick search for alarms , and slit the window screen. She unlatched it and set it up against a house. Nudge, for once, was silent.

I helped Max jiggle the window frame until the lock came undone, and then I climbed through. This would be the perfect time to execute a spy drop-and-roll move, but I was too tired to do so.

As soon as we were all in, we started tearing open cabinets. I found orange soda, and Max and Nudge hit the gold with canned ravioli, beans, and fruit. A feast.

It took us no time at all to dispose of all this, and the family that lived here would be pretty surprised to find most of their food stock missing. I hoped there was a grocery store in this town.

"Uhh. I feel like, like concrete," Nudge moaned.

"Let's take ten, and rest a bit. We'll feel better once we've digested a minute." I flopped down onto the couch _Ooh I love this house,_ and crossed my legs, folding my arms behind my head for a pillow.

"I second that emotion," Max said sleepily.

We were out within seconds.


	15. Chapter 15

15.

I dreamed of flying Erasers. Huge flying wolf-men. Chasing us.

_Crap, this sucks._

And that about summed it up.

I woke, startled. _Oh, my God, where am I?_ I sat bolt upright, hearing the couch shift below me. In some sort of house… _Ohh that's right. Dummy._ I sighed.

_Well, better clean some of this up, while we have time._

I swung myself off of the couch, almost kicking Max in the process. _Still asleep, lazy one?_ I contemplated waking her and making her freak out, but no, let the girls sleep.

I tossed all our cans into the trash. _What, no recycling? Rude, environment-hurting people._

Well, we have a swig left of orange soda. I drank it. _Ugh. Not so good… Room temperature soda is one thing, but room temperature __**flat**__ soda is another. There's no point_. I tossed it also.

I saw something in the corner of the kitchen… _Hey, a backpack! That could be handy_. I put it up on the table for future use.

Okay, all done being the responsible one. There's enough time to sleep some more, we were only out for fifteen minutes. I hit the couch, sending dust flying in all directions.


	16. Chapter 16

16.

Darkness… comforting.

Angel was escaping; being chased. But she was smart, she flew, the Erasers snapping at her heels. One took her shoe, but she shook it off. Flying home.

But there was no home to return to…

My mind couldn't figure that one out…


	17. Chapter 17

17.

"Ouch! Son of a gu-" _No… I'm asleep. You can't make me wake up!_ "What the…"

_Shut up, Max! We're sleeping!_

"Nudge! Nudge! Wake up! Oh, man!"

_Fine. I'll get up._ I shook my head, and sneezed. Max's freak-out had sent dust in all directions. "What time is it?" I swung my legs over the couch and sat up.

"Almost morning!" She screamed. "Of the _next day_!"

_Whatever. Time to get moving_. I walked into the kitchen, and started packing cans of whatever I could find into my backpack. Max was screaming at Nudge.

"Fang, you can't carry all that! It'll weigh you down! Nothing's heavier than cans," Max turned to me, successful, apparently, in waking Nudge up.

I shrugged. Yeah, but I can fly carrying lots of stuff. And this is a _backpack_, it's not like a grocery bag. I pulled the backpack on and slipped out the window, once again resisting doing a cool spy move.

Seconds later, Nudge was nearly thrown out the window, and Max followed, not securing the screen tightly enough. She spun on the spot and sprinted down the road, leaped into the air and flapped hard. Nudge followed.

I secured the screen, it's easy if you know how, and followed them. You'd think we were chasing Angel halfway across the country instead of flying to get her in a certain spot.

I sprinted eight feet or so, opened my wings slightly, and took off.


	18. Chapter 18

18.

Up in the air, Max didn't seem any more relaxed. She was flapping more often than needed, trying to go faster. She caught any jet of wind that propelled her forward.

Following her birdlike directional senses, her movements confirmed what I thought we should do. She turned, and set us on a new path.

One of the nice things about flying is that you can go anywhere you want to. You don't have to follow roads, or worry about dead ends, or anything. The world is yours to explore.

Max still looked worried. I could tell that she was thinking about Angel, about losing time.

"We had to rest," I told her, beating my wings a few times, and pulling up beside her.

"For _ten hours_?" She snapped at me, and gave me a look that I could easily call a glare. An upset glare.

"Today we've got another four hours to go, maybe a bit more. We couldn't have done it in one shot. It was late when we left. We're going to have to stop again, anyway, right before we get there, and refuel."

I could tell that this upset Max, and that I'd gotten another point. Fang-3, Max-0. But she should understand this logic. We couldn't fly forever without stopping. Max and I could go for longer than Nudge, but we had to look out for everyone in our group. Which brought me to another point.

"We going to storm the place or what?" I asked a while later.

"Yeah, Max, I was wondering what your plan was." We all were, Nudge. "I mean, there's only three of us, and a whole bunch of them. And they have guns. Could we, like, drive a truck through the gates? Or even into the building? Or maybe we could wait for nightfall, sneak in, and sneak out with Angel before anyone notices us?"

Nudge was three years younger than us. She didn't know any better. Because there was no way we could sneak in. And forget driving a car, which wasn't strong enough and would probably kill us, into a building, we'd have a better chance with a plane. But we couldn't steal a plane. Or a car, if Max was in charge.

I dropped back in the formation, but not before I saw Max's face. Her expression was one that gave away her thoughts. She did have a plan, one that no one would be happy with. What was the use of rescuing Angel if we lost another member?


	19. Chapter 19

19.

We traveled in silence for miles. I stared down at the landscapes and towns, wondering what it would be like to lead a normal life. Would we go to school? What would that be like? And having a family run by adults? That had to suck, but also might nice not to have to pick up the slack at times.

Nudge was babbling on, after a time of silence. Something about Iggy and Gazzy, and maybe Angel. I stayed conveniently across from her, so her words didn't reach my ears as words, more as psychobabble.

Max was staring down at the people below, as well. An expression of worry and hatred, kind of mixed, crossed her face. I knew that expression. It was the expression of fighting for the underling.

I followed her glance, and sure enough, there was a gang of boys with a gun (How in the world did some kids get a gun?) surrounding a girl.

Max turned to me, ready to say something.

"No," I told her. We were on a mission, thank you for getting me up early this morning.

She narrowed her eyes at me, and tried to speak again. I knew what the words were going to be.

"_No_," I told her, firmly. But Max was right. Our whole flock was not a democracy, it was a Maxocracy. No one had any say in decisions, except her.

"Meet me at the northernmost point of Lake Mead," she told us.

"What? What are you talking about? Are we stopping? I'm hungry again." A mile a minute, that's our Nudge.

Max was about to speak, but I decided to answer Nudge for her.

"Max wants to go be Supergirl, defender of the weak." Maybe Nudge could talk her out of it, remind her of Angel? Nope. Don't count on girls to back you when it comes to being Supergirl, defender of the weak.

"Oh," Nudge said. Max bent her wing, and arced herself in a large circle, preparing to go down. "Oh! Max, remember when you got that little rabbit away from the fox, and we kept it in a carton in the kitchen, and then when it was well you let it go? That was cool. Did you see another rabbit?"

"Kind of," Max answered. I stared straight ahead. Why did Max have to be Supergirl for people she didn't know? Was being Supergirl to her flock not exciting enough? "It'll take two seconds." She turned to me. "I'll catch up with you guys before you've gone forty miles. Just keep on course, and if anything weird happens, I'll meet you at Lake Mead."

I kept staring ahead.

"Okay. See you in a few," she told us. I had stopped listening. I was afraid of what would happen if she _didn't_ see us in a few.


	20. Chapter 20

20.

Nudge and I kept on flying. Nudge, who had fallen behind to watch Max for a little while, caught up and flew next to me.

"Where's Max actually going?"

I turned my head to look at her. She was genuinely confused.

"To help someone, like she said." I told her exactly what Max had.

"Oh." I could tell she didn't really understand it. _You will someday, Nudge. And then you'll be the same as Max; saving the world one person at a time_.


	21. Chapter 21

21.

It had been over forty miles, and Max wasn't back as she'd promised. I knew she wouldn't be, but Nudge had taken her words to heart.

"Fang, what about Angel? Why isn't Max back yet? Is she going to find another rabbit? You know, it would be hard to take a rabbit with us. Do you think she'll manage to save something?"

"Nudge, I don't know what's going on. But Max _will_ catch up with us."

"I know."

She looked around, staring around at the trees below us, watching the smaller birds down below, and watching the larger birds of prey above. I watched her, thinking.

If Max didn't come back for a while, what would we do? Could we go after her? I immediately shook my head. No, we couldn't. If someone had found out about her, about us, we couldn't show up and give them what they wanted. Hello, cages.

We'd wait for her.


	22. Chapter 22

22.

We were getting close to Lake Mead. I had instructed Nudge to fly even higher, as there might be campers in the woods.

_Hmm, campsites. Not a bad source of food_.

I had to find a place to stay, and that would be hard. So many people would hike around here. When Max found us, whether it be in a few minutes or a few days, it was my job to be prepared.

A secluded, safe place is what we needed. Something to shelter us from the rain or heat, and curious tourists.

Yeah, it was the mountains. A tree could work if we found nothing else.

I doubted Nudge would enjoy staying in a tree for a while.


	23. Chapter 23

23.

"Fang? I'm really hungry, you know?" Nudge called to me about an hour after Max had left. Taking care of Nudge, that was my job now.

I nodded, and then saw a nice, secluded place. A ledge, jutting out of a cliff. I motioned to it with my head. Nudge saw, and followed me.

The ledge turned out to be the outpost of a small cave. Perfect. I pulled out of my flight position, and almost stood up, flapping my wings back to slow down. I let Nudge land first, and looked around. Coast clear.

I landed lightly next to Nudge. The cave was bigger than I'd thought, about fifteen feet into the cliff. Nudge sat down, and I dropped my backpack, pulling out food.

"Oh, yes, yes!" Nudge exclaimed. I was glad that I had thought to pack food back in the cabin. And Max told me not to. Another point for Fang.

Aha. Jackpot. I pulled out a chocolate bar, and waved it in front of Nudge, who squealed from excitement. "Oh, Fang, where did you find this? You must have been hiding it – you didn't say anything, and all this time you've had _chocolate_, and oh, God, it's so good…"

I smiled at her. She could turn any situation into something where you either didn't feel so bad, or you wanted to kill her. I broke off a piece of chocolate and bit into it, closing my eyes and letting the flavor last. It had been so long since I'd had chocolate.

"So where's Max?" Nudge asked after she'd finished her chocolate. "Why'd she go down there? Shouldn't she be back by now? Aren't we supposed to go all the way to Lake Mead? What are we gonna do if she doesn't come back soon-"

I held up my hand, and she stopped talking.

"Max saw someone in trouble, down below, and went to help. We'll wait here for her; Lake Mead is right below us." Nudge still seemed worried. But she didn't speak.

I continued eating; this dried fruit was actually really good. Which reminded me that we'd never gotten Angel's strawberries. I sighed; it was unlikely that we would.

Nudge had stood up, and was wandering about the cave. I was about to warn her to be careful, when she froze.

"Uh, _Fang?_" she squeaked.


	24. Chapter 24

24.

I walked over to where Nudge was, and then froze.

Above us, on the cliffs, were many, many nests. Huge nests. And the large birds in them were watching us. At a less cursory look, there seemed to be younger fledglings in the nest, which would make it all the more difficult for us to stay here.

"What are they?" Nudge whispered to me.

"Ferruginous hawks. Largest raptor in the States. Sit down, _very slowly_. No sudden movements or we're both bird feed."

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Nudge as she slowly dropped, copying my movements. She obviously was kind of freaked out. _Don't run, don't run, don't run_. And Nudge was smart enough not to scream or run. That would've made both of us, well, dead meat.

"Do you think –" Nudge started to say, but I held one finger up, and she was silent.

I watched the hawks; they were amazing creatures. To think that part of our DNA could include us in these raptors was astounding.

One of the hawks had caught a gopher, and its babies were squawking loudly, begging for it.

A few minutes later, Nudge was still sitting, still and silent. I smiled very slightly. Then I had an idea. We'd be taking off from here often, to get food and such. So the hawks should know that we're _kind of_ part what they are.

I slowly extended one of my wings. Immediately, the hawks turned their heads to stare at Nudge and me.

"I'm letting them catch my scent," I told Nudge, barely moving my lips.

After a little while, Nudge did the same. It must have been around fifteen minutes to half an hour later, after we had extended our wings fully, that the hawks relaxed and continued on with their lives.

Some hawks flew away, searching for food. Others stayed to feed the fledglings. One came back with a snake, still moving. The fledglings fought over it, trying to get the first bites all to themselves.

"Eww," Nudge whispered. "Double eww."

I couldn't help grinning at her. She smiled back. I knew that she wanted to be on her way, not having to wait for Max much longer, but I hoped that she could contain herself long enough to learn more about these birds.


	25. Chapter 25

25.

"Angel's _waiting_ for us," Nudge complained a bit later. "I mean, she's like a little sister, like everyone's little sister."

The hawks had been more comfortable with them sitting there, and I thought that I might try flying with them. The hawks had an amazing way of flying, so natural, so much unlike what we did.

"At night, when we're supposed to be asleep, me and Angel talk and tell jokes and stuff." She caught my eyes. I nodded, slightly. "I mean, am I going to have to sleep in that room alone, whenever we get home? Max has to come back. She wouldn't let Angel go, right?"

"No," I assured her. "She won't let Angel go. Look – you see how that big hawk, the one with the dark stripe on its shoulders – you see how he seems to move one wing faster than the other when he banks? It makes his bank really tight and smooth. We should try it." Nudge just stared at me. Then she turned to watch the hawk.

"Yeah, I see what you mean," she told me, and was about to say something else, but I stood up, and ran quickly and lightly to the edge of the cave, and leaped off into the air.

I spread my wings to full fourteen-foot wingspan immediately, so I caught myself before falling far. I beat my wings a bit, and then flew closer to where the hawks were circling around. They didn't seem to mind me.

I followed them around their circle, moving my outside wing faster to bank. This move was so much better than what we had been doing before. I moved to the outside of the circle, and called to Nudge as I passed.

"Come on. Try it! You'll fly better."

I swept by quickly. There was nothing that equaled flying. I looked behind me, and saw Nudge reluctantly jump off the cliff and glide through the air. Flying across the circle, she caught up with me quickly. I showed her how to do the move, and she imitated it.

Flying with the hawks let me free my mind, and focus only on imitating their moves. They were so graceful, and flew so effortlessly.

That evening, we were sprawled out on the floor of the cave, watching the hawks, who were feeding the fledglings, preening their feathers, and teaching them how to fly.

Nudge sniffled.

"What?" I asked her.

"These birds," Nudge wiped her eyes with her hand. "Like, these dumb hawks have more of a mom than I ever had. The parents are taking care of the little ones. No one ever did that for me, well besides Max. But she's not a mom."

"Yeah. I get it." Nudge was so sad. I knew that she wanted to know she had a family. We all did. At that moment, I hated the scientists at the School more than ever. Every child deserved someone.

It made me think of Ari, Jeb's son. I was sure that Eraser had been him. And he'd had a parent, Jeb. But even so, he'd been made into an Eraser. And Jeb had died. We were sure of that. _Maybe,_ I thought, _just maybe the Erasers weren't bad, just brainwashed._

Then I remembered Angel, and how they'd been so violent, doing anything to get her. I clenched my fist, as if trying to punch an invisible Eraser in front of me. _No. They were all bad. Anyone or anything that can do that to a little kid_… I really hoped Angel was okay.

After a while, once all the birds had settled down, I scooted over to Nudge, and held out my left fist. She looked up at me, and stacked her left fist on mine. She tapped my left fist with her right hand, and I did the same for her. Tradition was important to our flock.

"Night," Nudge whispered, curling herself against the wall of the cave.

"Night, Nudge," I whispered back. "It'll be okay." I wasn't sure if she heard me. She probably was already asleep. I stretched out on the floor, ready to fall asleep. Maybe Max would come tonight. Just maybe.


End file.
